On 2013-07-04 16:16, Jürka wrote:But the big question is that what I'm gonna do with next clay-guys... Maybe that plastificator would help in this question??? There always be some bubbles that ruins everything...

Correction: formsil... formsil was that weirdo thing what I might need...

Spaces between wood pieces can be filled with wood putty and sanded before casting. Or you can use sculpters clay such as Romo number 3 or even ceramic clay still wet. Just cover it with mold soap before pouring the plaster. It all works. I like you two new designs, Wendy
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No-no-no, problem is bubbles inside the clay! Mold is okay, but clay, it has air inside... Holes which can be seen outside, I can fix, but holes inside which cannot see nor reach, that's the big problem... It will explode in the oven... The same thing happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki...

I poured next clayman... After mixing clay I let it stay for a while that bubbles could come up... and mixed some more... I guess it didn't help much, because I didn't see any bubble come up... But the main difference I did was that I poured the clay into the mold the way the beer is poured into the glass to reduce foam... in angle of 45 degrees... And I think it was right thing to do... Anyway, it looks that this time there's no bubbles... So... I guess it will be the first mug that goes to oven...

Kane is gonna come in this life... The wood is shaped and cut off and waits for drawing... I guess I'm gonna take a glass of brandy-cola tonight and will do something useful...

Now the biggest problem...
...is that when the clayman is lying in the mold for few days, the water goes out, the guy goes shorter... and shaped places of his face will get stuck in the mold and the mold is breaking them pretty heavily. It's a real problem now for me.

So... Today I poured next three claymen... and tomorrow I will put them horizontal and open the front part, so that the change of size would not hurt them. I don't know how it works, but we'll see...

The next biggest problem...
...is that I have no idea how to make that bottom indent... To push it later with that wooden ring will harm it... pretty bad... I don't want to do it this way... even not together with lot of water... Maybe I try to make the ring with simple divider and just to dig it little bit with clay-instruments and fingers... I don't know, it's not easy... and to write some words in it is also not the easiest, Maybe I will figure out some stancil for cutting or something... We'll see... I think I will write it after it's dry...

Anyway... I'm not happy with those guys I opened today... We'll see if my idea of opening the front part in very early stage works... There may happen that the clay-guy will slump flat when it's not vertical... or that when the front part will dry better (because it's open), then it bends because the other part will stay bigger longer time... or something like that may happen. Can't know before I haven't tried...

You are right Jurka. If you leave the casting in the mold too long it shrinks too much and breaks when you pull the mold off. The key is to pull it from the mold when it is just firm enough to stand on it's own. I let mine sit for about 8-12 hours before removing them from the mold, not a couple of days.

As far as the "foot" or indented rim at the bottom. When you remove the casting from the mold and it's still somewhat soft, you can carefully indent the bottom by pressing on the bottom with your thumbs. Here is a simple 2 piece mold I made a few years back. It had a flat bottom when cast and I pressed it in.

Jurka you are really struggling with this. I feel bad that I am 6,000 miles away and not able to be of much help. You might want to see if there is someone locally who is doing slip casting. Maybe a university nearby? I was able to see someone casting when I first started out and it really helped
_________________May we all get to have a chance to ride the fast one
Walk away wiser when we crashed one
Keep hoping that the best one is the last one

The first time I took it out on the next day (around 12...24 hours) and when I put it on it's feet (no, my tikis have only heads), the bottom part was much more wet than the upper part, because there is not much air in the bottom... and it was too soft and... and...

Well, that was yesterday's stuff... Now update!
So... today... I opened front parts of the molds and... it was still too late... I poured again and... I'd say... After 30 min must slip it out and from that time 2...2,5 hours should open the front part... I did it and it looks good... Well, today I started to use old clay, which was poured out, cut off, found from here and there... and hard mixing and everything and had again little bubble problem because of it, so one clay-guy I cancelled and threw away... but other I hope are pretty ok.

My idea is that I want to use fingers as less as possible... I want to keep them original shape as wood... With working on it later, it doesn't give the same true look... But here is my question: Does fingerprints and little variations will be seen under the glaze or maybe the glaze is the thing that makes miracles?

Anyway... those new guys... which I opened after 2...2,5 hours... They really look clean... All the small details exactly as on wooden guy...

There is still big question for me... that bottom thing... I don't like that finger-way too much... because I'm afraid it will look different on each mug... and I guess it would never look as clean as it should... I think I should find some cone-shape thing instead of round-shape... I don't know... That's one big question for me... All the ideas are welcome!

Another question: Does every little airbubble inside mug means explosion in kiln? ...and if there is some 10 pcs of mugs in kiln and one will explode, does it mean the death for all of them who are chilling around in the same kiln?

Oh! And one more thing! I'm not struggling! Let's say other way... I'm discovering the world of ceramics! I will do it again and again and again, learn the best ways by my practice and exercise my hands, fingers, tactics, eyes, and everything... Once I was lookin' for anybody I could know who would know anything about ceramics... Nope, there's nobody... Everybody is building cars, playing rock'n'roll, drinking beer, having babies... But no clay-stuff around here... Nope... But there's a Tiki-forum for that... Yeap...

Depending on your type of glaze it could cover all fingerprints, but that would also cover you small details too. As the clay start to dry and becomes like leather, you can smooth out any defects with tools or wet fingers. Once it is bone dry you can carefully sand it.

Pressing in the bottom with your fingers will not change the shape of the mug, only the shape of the bottom which no one sees unless they turn it over. I think you are more likely to damage your clayguy if you try to push it in with some sort of wooden plug.

As far as bubbles, there are 2 schools of thought there. Some people say that all bubbles will explode in the kiln. Others say that damp clay explodes. If you can't be sure that all the bubbles were eliminated, be sure your clay is COMPLETELY dry before you fire it. It helps to fire it slow if you can control that. You might even bake it in a regular oven for a few hours to help drive out any remaining moisture. Can a piece that explodes in the kiln damage other pieces near it? Yes, depends on the size of the explosion based on the size of the bubbles and/or amount of moisture in the clay

Hope that helps, glad you are having a good time learning _________________May we all get to have a chance to ride the fast one
Walk away wiser when we crashed one
Keep hoping that the best one is the last one

For me it would be okay if the glaze would cover small details. The main thing is that it must look natural. So... Today I discovered new way of fixing/cleaning them... I wait till they are dry and then I'll use scalpel and carve it as wood. Result is natural. Also the same thing I will do with that bottom. I'll wait till it's dry, then I'll take dividers and make a round and with scalpel I will scrape it out. And now some pictures...

Here is a tip when you have to take the tiki out and you don't have time to clean it or anything... Put some plastic over it and you can go for rock and roll for few days, come back and it's still fresh... No sh*t, Sherlock... But yeah, I discovered that the dry one is just as good to fix than fresh...

Here's the example how much it dries and shrinks in one night.

Here they are... Coming three together... So... 1) Slip in. 2) Wait 30 min. 3) Slip out. 4) Wait around 2 hours. 5) Open front sides and let them dry as they are in picture... but better to take them out as soon as possible, because other side doesn't shrink as fast as front side and it will bend. I don't know yet if it bends back later when the back side will dry too after it's out.

A-a-a-and here's carved Kanaloa and shot-skull and drawn Kane.

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Hope that helps, glad you are having a good time learning

No! I'm not having good time, I'm f*cking pissed off every time I find out something is wrong again and again and again and things doesn't go as they should... but... must walk that road, cause holy mission doesn't finish itself. I will do it as long as it gets ready for rum and juice and umbrella. Amen!

So, now I have started to clean the bottoms and tops... That's how I found out that yeap, there's many bubbles of each of them... I guess I have to try that good drying method, because I have no idea how to prevent air-bubbles even better as I do it.

But now... With those bottoms and tops... Walls of the mug are not exactly same thick, there's always some places thinner than others... And now, when I'm doing that top... It will not be in round shape... More like pancake shape... What do y'all think? Is it ok? Or maybe it shows bad handcraft work? I could make them near round by scalpel, but I'm not sure if it would look better then... For me... in case of tiki mugs... it doesn't bother... Maybe it's even more interesting and old-school look... On your mugs, is it important that they would be all straight? For example some of mine has happened to be bended (very little)... How important is for you the bottom? If it's not seen, then it doesn't have to be 100% calendered? Or even if it's not seen, everything should be still perfect? What do you think about these things? Is it important that all the same mugs would be exactly same size (length) by every millimeter?

And now... What has been done... There's three of them (one of each kind) in other room drying... Here most of them are garbage... At moment I have 5 Kumuhonuas, 3 Lonos and 3 Kus which could be almost ok for kiln (if they would not explode)... Ofcourse they need lot of cleaning, tops are not done yet on this picture, I cleaned pretty much after this photo was clicked.

I guess it's enough of them for now... I think I may have... some... emm... around 7...8 Kumuhonuas, 3 pcs of Kus and 4 pcs of Lonos... Few days ago I received my 90-euros glazes... So now I'm gonna wait till they get dry, meanwhile I clean them and make bottoms and tops and engraving... and then I'm gonna put it into my oven as Mad Dog recommended... to be sure it's 100% dry... and send to kiln and hope that they would not explode (they really have lot of bubbles)... and glaze and kiln again and party if everythings gonna come out fine...

Jurka, that's an impressive army of mugs. Look nice and thick too. The engraving on the back of those three looks very clean - nice work. I'm anxious to see how they fire, waiting to see pics with you drinking rum drinks out of them with paper umbrellas! _________________May we all get to have a chance to ride the fast one
Walk away wiser when we crashed one
Keep hoping that the best one is the last one

I'm really enjoying watching you work. These will look great. Look for glazes that go into the grooves to show detail. Here those are Duncan IN glazes. Best wishes for a successful firing. Do a slow ramp to prevent cracking. Wendy
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